Sermon - Advent 2 - Mark 1:1-10

 

John the Baptist makes his appearance among us again this year.  The voice crying in the wilderness sounds forth each and every Advent, and calls us to prepare the way of the Lord.  John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is not all that different from our own baptism – by which we daily drown the Old Adam in repentance and faith.  All the more, then, in this Advent season, let us repent of our sins, and find the forgiveness that God gives us in Word and Sacrament for the sake of his Son, Jesus Christ.

John is the last of the prophets.  He is the crescendo of a symphony of voices that proclaimed both the wrath and promises of God.  And what a voice he is.  Jesus says about John that no one greater has been born of women.  That John is a prophet, and more than a prophet.  That he is, if you can accept it, Elijah who is to come (that is to say, he comes in the spirit of Elijah).

And much like the prophets who went before him, John’s ministry and message are met with mixed reviews.  Some hear and repent and believe.  Others see John as a threat to be dealt with, and want to silence that voice in the wilderness.

But John also comes in the spirit of Isaiah the prophet.  In fact it is this passage from Isaiah 4 that is given as the basis for John’s ministry. 

Comfort, yes, comfort My people!...

Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,

That her warfare is ended,

That her iniquity is pardoned;

For she has received from the LORD’s hand

Double for all her sins.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

 

‘Prepare the way of the LORD;

Make straight in the desert

A highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted

And every mountain and hill brought low;

The crooked places shall be made straight

And the rough places smooth.

John was, like Isaiah, ultimately, a preacher of comfort.  Though we think of him as harsh, as fire-and-brimstone, and remember his catch phrase, “You brood of vipers!”.  Nonetheless John brought forgiveness, and so there was comfort.  John brought Gospel healing as well as law.  And like any good preacher worth his salt, John’s main thing was to point people to Jesus – the one greater than John – the one John only came to herald and proclaim.  Jesus, the only and ultimate source of comfort.

Now, for Isaiah, that didn’t go very well.  His message of comfort wasn’t so well received by everyone.  I guess one man’s comfort is another man’s discomfort.  A mountain leveled here is a valley filled there.

And so faithful preacher Isaiah, so the tradition goes, was put to death by a wicked king who had him sawed in half.  Hebrews (11:37-38) alludes to this: 

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Oh, they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute and mistreated?  That sounds like John the Baptist.  Camel’s hair and a leather belt – simple clothes.  Locusts and wild honey – simple food.  Whatever was available as he wandered in the wilderness.  And John, finally spoke truth to the wrong power – Herod.  And he, also, like his forebear Isaiah, was cut in two – beheaded – by that wicked king.

John is the last of the prophets who prepared the way of the Lord. And he is sometimes also called the forerunner of Christ because he went ahead of Jesus to make his path straight.  He’s thus a very “Advent” figure, one who helps us, too, prepare the way of the Lord.

For though John and so many others had their voices silenced by martyrdom, yet through the church their deathless voices continue to rise and proclaim repentance and comfort for God’s people.

The Word of God will not be silenced.  It will endure forever.

That word calls us to repentance.  For we, too, need pardon for our iniquities.  We need the rough places of our heart smoothed out, the valleys of despair filled, the mountains of pride leveled.  You may not be so comforted when John’s message of repentance hits your teetering conscience like a wrecking ball.  You may feel that it’s war!  That the satanic forces of accusation are lining up against you.  That even God himself will meet you on the field, and that the wrath of his sword will be unleashed against you.  The letter, that is the law, kills.  And it’s supposed to.  That is it’s job.

But John, by the Word, proclaims to us comfort.  Comfort that the warfare is ended.  Oh the battles may rage here and there, even in the heart of every believer.  But the warfare is over.  The victory is won.  Jesus declares, “it is finished”.  And he proves it by rising to life again.

Comfort overflows when iniquity is pardoned.  When the verdict of “not guilty” is rendered.  When we know God’s love, and we know it so well that it overflows in us and we, too, become witnesses and heralds of the God of all comfort.

 And though every Christian is not called to public proclamation, or to the office of prophet, we are, all of us, witnesses of the hope and the comfort that is within us.  That’s not so much a command as it is a promise and a fact.  For when you know Christ’s love, you simply can’t help but to love others.  When you have the forgiveness of sins, you relish the thought of showing other sinners where to find the comfort you’ve found.  And when you repent of your sins, and abhor evil, the evil will often notice, and abhor you for it.

You might be the next one to receive a prophet’s reward.  You might be the next one to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  You might follow John and Isaiah, and so many other faithful pastors and believers in that great and noble throng called the martyrs. 

It may not be suffering to the point of shedding blood, like Isaiah or John.  I mean, look at Elijah, he didn’t even die in the end but was taken to heaven in a glorious fiery chariot!  But for anyone who follows the crucified one, there is always your own cross to bear, there is always your own burden to shoulder.

The comfort is this:  Jesus has gone before.  He has gone before John.  He has gone before you.  He has even gone before Isaiah and all the prophets, the believers of New and Old Testaments.  Jesus is, as John rightly calls him, the Lamb that Takes Away the Sin of the World.

He who pardons iniquity, and restores us double for our sins doesn’t just wait around for us to find our comfort in him.  But rather he sends out preachers.  His word goes forth and never returns void.  He pipes up in every wilderness in this broken, cursed, world.  And lifts his voice in comfort.  Comfort, yes, comfort, my people.  So says our God.  So say his faithful preachers.  So says Jesus, himself the incarnation of God’s Son, and he embodiment of comfort for all who have ears to hear and hearts to believe.

Thanks be to God for the one who went before Jesus, and still calls us to repent and be forgiven.  Thanks be to God for the Comfort Jesus brings, and is, for us and all people, making us his people, through the power of that might word of forgiveness and comfort.